Career Growth Lessons from Deena Ghazarian, Founder & Sales Executive | Career Advice for Women in Business and Tech

2B Bolder Podcast – Episode 8
Featuring Deena Ghazarian

Episode Title: #8 Career Podcast Featuring Deena Ghazarian, Managing Partner at TargetPath and founder of Austere : Women in Business

Host: Mary Killelea
Guest: Deena Ghazarian



Mary Killelea: Hi there, my name is Mary Killelea, welcome to the 2B Bolder podcast, providing career insights for the next generation of women in business and Tech. 2B Bolder was created out of my love for technology and marketing, my desire to bring together like-minded women, and my hope to be a great role model and source of inspiration for my two girls and other young women like you, encouraging you guys to show up and to be Bolder, and to know that anything you guys dream of, it's totally possible. On 2B Bolder, you're going to hear inspiring stories of how successful women, some I know, some I just want to bring to you guys, and they're going to talk about their careers in business and Tech, and they're going to tell us their stories about their passion and their journey and their challenges, and we're going to learn some of their advice along the way too, so sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversation.

Today's going to be a great show. I had the pleasure of meeting my guest a few months ago through a mutual friend. Deena Ghazarian is managing partner at Target path and founder of Aer with which is a unique technology accessory brand. She is a dynamic Global sales executive with a 20-year record of achievement and demonstrated success driving multi-million dollar sales growth while providing award-winning sales leadership. She is an expert in global Consumer Electronic sales and channel marketing. She's tenacious in building new businesses and Powerful Partnerships, and if that wasn't enough, she's an executive board member of the consumer technology Association, which produces the annual huge Consumer Electronics Show called CES. Deena, it is so great to have you here today, thanks for being on the show.

Deena Ghazarian: Thank you, Mary. I'm happy to be here.

Mary Killelea: Alright, let's just dive in. So you have a full plate being both the managing partner at Target path and the founder and CEO of a Steer. Can you tell everyone a little bit about each company and how you are involved with each of them?

Deena Ghazarian: Absolutely. So five years ago I left working for a manufacturer that had been at for about 15 years. And really with all of my background and experience I've been very fortunate to be in some very different situations for business which has made me very well-rounded. And so with that, myself and two other gentlemen decided to kind of kick off a consulting firm business called Target path. And so I and the two others are managing Partners in a business, and much like my background, what Target path does is we will take Brands who've created an awesome product. But they're not quite sure what's the right path and where to go next with their product in order for it to be successful in the marketplace. So we sit down and review the antithesis of the product, where it came from. What's the point, who are we trying to solve a problem for, ETC. From there we put together an entire strategic plan on how they can execute in retail for the best success. We are very conscientious in regards to their financial situation and how you best leverage every dollar that you're getting. So Target path has a team of about 35 people behind us that are awesome executors in the field. So what we do is we actually leverage them in a fractional manner to be able to support these different brands as businesses, so we take one of our team members who has maybe 10-20 years of experience. We put them into a situation where they know exactly how, what to do and how to take the ball that brand of whatever it is in the action that they're doing. So finance, operations, channel marketing, you know marcom, you name it, and they go running with it. And because they get up to speed so much faster than a regular employee, we build out the process. And from there once we kind of get that execution going we actually help hire the people that will replace our team at Target path so the brand continues to grow. So it's actually a very neat process that takes about, in most cases if we do it right, where there for about a year and a half to two years of really taking somebody from, hey I have this product what do I do next, all the way through to, hey now we have you in the field and you're executing, let's put your team in place and go.

Mary Killelea: That sounds amazing, they're probably like your children you like you know after a year and a half you let them go and then you just watch him and succeed.

Deena Ghazarian: That's right, exactly. And so what's interesting about that model for Target path, and the reason why I explained it in so much detail, is when we actually had the opportunity of quite a few retailers coming to us and asking us to create this home theater accessories brand called AER, we knew that in order to get AER up and running quickly, fast, with profitability in it, and really kind of turning a profit in less than a year, we knew that if we use the target path model we would be able to do it and do it well. So we have leveraged in the beginning of Aer different pieces of Target path to get the business up and running, and in turn every opportunity we have now to hire a full-time person because the business is Warran or it's time for that role to be a full-time role, then boom, we switch the target path person out and bring a full-time person in. And then it just, the business justifies whether that can happen or not, and it's making us very successful and doing it where we literally, as I like to say, we get every last squeeze of that scent from that dollar that we're spending on the business, which in most cases startups are not as efficient. And so this really gives somebody the ability to have an efficient startup to do it quick and fast and run the model. So that's kind of how a steer came to be through the efforts of Target path.

Mary Killelea: That's exciting, and I follow you AER online, and it's a beautiful product line.

Deena Ghazarian: Thank you, what we, what we did with AER is we were so fortunate we had a lot of retailers and Distributors globally who came to us and said we really need you to be in this space, we need you to help train and teach the individuals on the sales floor be able to interact with the consumer in a way where the consumer is educated and not threatened and not saying here you need to buy this you need to buy this, but there was no reason why placed into the actual conversation so that was the piece of how we kind of got into the conversation. But once we did, I said well I want to do it my way, in the sense that most of the brands out there, most of it is off a shelf, it's plastic, there's really not a lot of thought to the design behind the technology. And so what we did is we found the best technology we could bring to the table for every product, and in turn put design to give it the most unbelievable look, but the best functionality you could get. And combining those two things that really elevated AE to the next level to give you more than you could possibly expect from the brand, hence our tagline more than expected, so it's a lot of fun.

Mary Killelea: That's awesome, so walk us through your career path and tell us how you got started in the business and you know I know you talked a little bit about how you guys started up with Target path but kind of catch us up to today.

Deena Ghazarian: Yeah, absolutely. So I was getting ready to graduate, I'll even go back to gr, you know, to graduate from college, was literally going to go to law school, that is where I had my focus. And my father who was a lifelong entrepreneur literally sat me down and said c can you do me a favor, can you just work, like you've literally come out of school all you've done is you know study kind of get through this, why don't you take a breath and just work and do something to learn more about the business. And so my dad never really gave much direction, he always kind of let us succeed on our own, so the fact that it kind of slowed me down and said hey I really think you should think about this, it was kind of one of those conversations you're like wow maybe I should listen. So it was great, my law school gave me the ability to defer, and so I said great if I'm going to do what it is that I want that would kind of excite me and really would have a lot of passion around. So I was very much a fashion type of person, it's what My Little Secret love is. So I had this awesome opportunity met with the recruit from what was Bullock's department stores, which was eventually acquired by Macy's an insurance Federated, and he sat me down and said listen you're a 21y old kid out of school I can guarantee you you're going to manage anywhere between a 15 million and $20 million business in your first year here. I guarantee you're not going to get that anywhere else, and if you want to go back into school after that or that you know want to move on to your next job that's really something that a 21y old doesn't get afforded. And so it was kind of like wow that's meaningful and I agree, and plus I will get an awesome discount and get to build my wardrobe I'm in right.

Mary Killelea: I love it.

Deena Ghazarian: Started in the stores which was probably the best thing that could have happened to me, he put me with a legend in the business on the fashion side of things. You know, the first female buyer ever in the orient, the first female store manager ever in the state of California, and she was my mentor, and for seven years didn't leave. I absolutely loved it, by the way, loved being on the floor, loved interacting with the customer, loved visually being able to give them an experience that would excite somebody to buy. And then what was I guess ironic about the situation is I was always an accessory, so literally from day one I was always kind of the attachment to something, I was never the lead, which is very true and the thread about everything I've done so far with me in my business career. So I was there for about seven years, met my husband there, and one of the things we quickly learned was that working for the same company was probably not the best move on our part. He had more seniority than I did by a couple years, so I said great. We had moved to the Bay Area for him in a promotion, it was during the boom of dotcom, and I said well I'll just go get a dotcom job and it'll probably give us lots of shares and then we'll hit It rich like everybody else was doing, and then you know we'll never have to work again, so we went. So I found myself a dotcom job, it happened to be a consumer electronics Hardware product called replay TV, and most people probably don't know replay but if I mention to and the whole concept of a digital video recorder that is when that business was getting started, and that's exactly what I walked into. The gentleman who actually is the CEO of Roku and Anthony Wood was the CEO of Replay. So I got to meet a lot of Legends instantly, right, in the business. And for one year we had an awesome time, it was one, it was during the dotcom when it was super exciting, and sure enough in less than a year we ran through all of our money, they let everybody go, they sold off sold off all the assets, and I don't know at like 26 years old seven years old I was out of a job, never had been in that situation, that was a little freaky. So what had been great is in my role at replay I was an account manager, I had a lot of great relationships with a lot of buyers all over the United States, and they said there's this other company in the Bay Area you should go talk to you probably would be a good fit there, it was monster, and monster was a accessories cable company well what it root its roots were and so went over there, ended up starting to work there, and sure enough for about 15 years was there at the company. Went through their very entrepreneurial in its thought process, and every single category there was a category after category we would create, sometimes that category would be wildly successful and sometimes that category would die on the vine, but it was an unbelievable training ground to be able to go through and really learn what it is to make something take off. Sometimes the technology was some of the coolest things you've ever seen or done, yet the timing wasn't right. So like I remember when we first started talking about a tile like product, which is that little square chip you can put into your bag and you know where it is because you can put it on your keys, put it on your bag, so we probably were talking about that concept maybe two and a half years before it ever launched. Nobody wanted it at the time though we had unbelievable training and focus, we really couldn't get a lot of people to bite. Fast forward three years you know boom you have a business that's a $25 million business within a couple years, and it wasn't because the technology wasn't right, it was just the timing for where it made sense for the consumer and the consumer's need. So those learnings really just put me in such an unbelievable spot that when I left monster and we went to go kind of re kick Target path into gear, those learnings and we say it all the time we're just really good and over the years we've made a ton of mistakes so we really point you in the direction of not making the same mistakes that traditional companies continue to make without some direction.

Mary Killelea: Oh absolutely, your story there it's just the foundation of what Target path offers, that's amazing.

Deena Ghazarian: Right.

Mary Killelea: That's amazing.

Deena Ghazarian: Yeah, we tease scarves on the back. We don't want you to have scars. We have plenty of scars. Let us help you don't do that to yourself, yeah for sure.

Mary Killelea: Okay, so today the consumer technology Association is North America's leading Tech trade Association and owner and producer of CES, it's the world largest most influential Tech event of you know the year.

Deena Ghazarian: Yes.

Mary Killelea: You're an executive board member. Congratulations by the way I think that's amazing.

Deena Ghazarian: Thank you. It's a lot of work but it's a fantastic organization.

Mary Killelea: Well I'd love to hear about your role and responsibility and how this opportunity came about?

Deena Ghazarian: Yeah, so the consumer technology Association is a group that is so focused on its members and helping its members succeed not only in yes it puts on CES lest trade show in the world that actually gives you the ability to expose yourself and your product to I don't know on average 180,000 people who attend that show but more importantly even behind the scenes they have one of the most unbelievable mentoring programs where they put someone who's more senior with a potential startup to give them some direction as part of that membership. It gives you the ability to get involved in your different categories and draft I would say policy and procedure or put together the draft for policy and procedure that ends up going in front of the government and gets sometimes accepted into everyday life. So for example they do a forum every year for policy and procedure. Last Forum if I remember correctly they were to help setting up what do the Drone policy and procedure look like, what is the Privacy with the state of California putting down their rules on how we were going to become so much more diligent in regards to privacy, how do we set up a standard so the rest of the tech world can follow it and meet the needs not only for the business but for government. With AER itself I was very much entangled in this whole trade war, by my side the entire way, supportive of me, helping me, teaching me things that I would have never known to be able to put my goods on a list to try to work with the government so I could have an exception. Just all of those things where this organization rallies around their members and takes care of them. So with being a member on the executive board it is our I think our duty and goal to continue to work with CTA to to create new programs and to create new focuses to make sure that all of those members are a part of it are really being taken care of and helping their business advance to the next level. So that's one piece of it that I would say is pretty spectacular. The other piece that I think is very unique about CTA is they will put you in touch with your congressmen when I have sat in My House of Representatives office. Fighting for the causes that are right for my business though they are great there's a some exceptional lobbyists that are part of the CTA group who obviously are on the hill every day driving those messages for us they know how important it is to put you as the business owner in front of your representative to talk about what's important and to move the needle in the right way so some of those things that they they have done single-handedly for the business is just been unbelievable and so the executive board helps give that direction continue to that focus and moving forward and it's really a humbling but honoring position to be in our industry. I was lucky I somebody introduced me to the CTA group I got involved it's all volunteer but it felt right and through that and through my efforts still but surely I've been moving from they have individual councils to I was on the board of Industry leaders for a while and then just this last year they asked me to be an executive board member.

Mary Killelea: That's amazing I had no idea that they offered those levels of support to businesses and critical ones you know that can save yourself so much time and trial and error and you know especially when it comes to the government and oh I can't even imagine not not knowing what you don't know and trying to tackle those things.

Deena Ghazarian: Correct. I think the other special thing about them too is, you know, here's a group of people that I would say is always on The Cutting Edge of trying to be different and trying to move the ball forward in ways that most businesses are not. So I'll give you a good example: the committee of the board decided to take some of the funds and put together A10 million fund that actually supports diverse and inclusive types of LPS that put money towards companies that have that type of diversity leadership in the roles of these you know Executives. So we got to the interview. I don't know about 60-70 funds over the last year and so far have placed about $5 million of that 10 million with these funds who are driving that Focus. If you do the homework and the research, about 2% of the funding money out there if we're lucky goes to different companies that divers or inclusivity is literally the priority for that company. So the fact that it's so small and the fact that CTA is making a movement forward to be able to kind of change that narrative it's pretty impressive from a group.

Mary Killelea: Yeah, that's amazing. Yeah, that's amazing, congratulations. So your resume obviously is quite impressive and I think it's also essential to highlight that you have received awards over the years for volunteering and you know even learning that the CTA Association is volunteer. But also for your p ping efforts in the consumer electronics industry. Talk about the value that you gain from volunteering and your involvement in the industry organizations because you know a lot of people come up with excuses like God you know I'm exhausted I have so much to do how could I ever volunteer you know I can't even go to this networking thing help the audience understand the values and the priority one should have in taking the time to volunteer to get involved with key organizations that are meaningful to them that also align to their career.

Deena Ghazarian: Yeah, oh there's so many points to this one. I would say selfishly first the reason why it is so important to me is I was very lucky I had some of the most unbelievable people who were mentors to me who volunteered their time to make sure that I went down the right path that I'm such a big believer in if somebody afforded you that opportunity it is just as much your responsibility to do the same, so that's kind of number one. And just the value that I get out of it and how it makes me feel is worth everything, but that's my selfish reason for doing it. Why I think it is critical especially in an industry that tends to be very male-dominated is that sometimes if you are in a position where you are fortunate to be able to grow and are given the opportunity to do well and become somebody that others look at for you to be able to break that down and say Here's exactly what I did it wasn't really even that complicated but this was my focus here's where I went I found my passion from there I surrounded myself with other people with the same passion and together we kind of created our our own little village to build it and to do it you know there you lose nothing in that scenario if anything you bring smarter more different thoughts to the table that I think are very critical in a in a business that is changing. So consumer electronics which was traditional hardware has shifted into consumer Tech. I think the you know the if you look at the demographic of who's purchasing consumer Tech it actually scales more towards women than it does to men, and so if you don't have women at the table with the thought process to be able to address their customer and the needs of the customer customer you're really not going to get the full scope of what could happen to the economy by providing that. So in giving back and really kind of opening up to say much like even what we do at Target path here's the mistakes that I made if I could do things differently here's what I would do differently. You know, learn from me, take advantage of that. Long term it gives back to the overall business and when I say business I don't mean my personal business or their personal business, to the industry.

Mary Killelea: Right.

Deena Ghazarian: And the more that the industry moves forward and the more that the industry is successful I think we as a consumer benefit. So I know it's a tiny little part to make that whole massive wheel move forward but I truly do believe that is what happens and so the more of us that do that the faster the wheel goes the faster technology moves forward to the betterment of our lives and ourselves and our families and that's where it just comes down to I don't know how you couldn't right it's weird to me that's that's two three networking is unbelievable some of the best opportunities I've had have come from these different interactions where it was strictly done you know authentically and from that somebody you know became became more than just I think an introduction they went from an acquaintance to a friend and I've I've had people take such good care of me because of the fact that hey you know you did this friendly let me let me introduce you to this person or hey knowing more about you let me put you in this situation and those circles no matter how hard you work and how hard you fight to kind of get more out of it you will never be put into that situation if you're not in that situation where you're networking.

Mary Killelea: Right.

Deena Ghazarian: And moving that forward and those are some of those situations to your point it was never part of my job it was never something that you know it was in addition but I just got so much out of it and found that it really put me on a different level for my career.

Mary Killelea: That's great. Yeah, networking is one of the most essential things that I think women tend to sometimes not be as proactive because they're you know after work they're involved with the responsibilities of the kids in the home or just trying to keep up with you know the current workload. So that is one thing that I try to emphasize, in these podcasts is the value and benefits that you can get from networking. So for our listeners out there that may not be sure if they want to get involved in business to consumer or to business business space what advice would you give them?

Deena Ghazarian: Like in the fact that they want to get involved and kind of what are your first steps?

Mary Killelea: Yeah, I mean so you've primarily been in business to Consumer. And I think business to business is a little harder to sell. I don't know if you agree or disagree with that?

Deena Ghazarian: I think it depends so business so I actually think that I think it might be the opposite I think business to Consumer is harder because if you don't understand what the customer wants and that end user who's by the way putting money down on the table to be able to purchase your product or your service you literally are going to be in a situation where you won't get traction and without that traction you don't survive. In a business to business environment because it is still kind of business oriented you get to interact with other people who are much more sympathetic to the fact that you are driving a business because you're working with other business holders so I actually think it's the opposite but either way right you have to know what is it that you're trying to solve so in a business consumer environment business to Consumer environment or a business business environment you have to know whatever it is the person that you're interacting with literally would want and in turn can you create something that gives an ability to make their life better by interacting with it or by purchasing it if that's if you can get that part done first and really understand and put yourself in the shoes of that end user right then I think you have good movement to figure out well what are the next steps and what are the next steps.

Mary Killelea: Right. Well that's a wonderful perspective and I appreciate you sharing your view and something that I can always learn from. So as a woman obviously we were trying to have this show to expose women in technology, women in business, is there more room or opportunities in the B2B space for women or B2C space?

Deena Ghazarian: Oh 100%. Yes, goes much back to the concept that I was talking about earlier if you're creating a product the not only is the person who's right now with the purchasing power a female in some cases it always is the consumer case even in a perfect world if it was 50-50, 50% of that you know consumer is male and 50% of that consumer is female you need to have that somewhat same balance at the table who's talking about how do I speak to that person what is it that we're creating for them what is it that they're going to need to see how can we add more value in order to stay relevant versus just being kind of like a one product hit how do you move those things forward those balances are critical and if you don't have that thought process at the table it makes it very hard so I would say I am seeing more and more it's very encouraging to me I'm seeing more and more companies bring that diversity and inclusiveness to the table and the ones that do tend to have the companies that actually go faster and what I mean by that is they tend to be more successful faster they tend to be much more Innovative in where it's headed and where it's going because it's a good balance you know, I know everyone's like you know yay women but here's my thing if we flip it all the way towards the other side of the pendulum it doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to actually have be successful either.

Mary Killelea: Right.

Deena Ghazarian: It's really this balance and bringing that balance to the table that's really critical to me.

Mary Killelea: I completely agree, in studies that I've read the value of bringing women to voice their opinions, understanding the customers and understanding product development. It's essential because it's just an added value that a lot of businesses haven't had because they've had a narrow perspective.

Deena Ghazarian: And I feel bad for sometimes for the businesses I don't know if it's necessarily been by choice some of the time there hasn't been the educated field in the you know in the in that business to be able to take advantage of that you know what I mean so sometimes it's not even during like the business situation it's even going back further to colleges you know universities High Schools elementary schools what are we exposing ourselves to and from that do you feel comfortable to be able to give it a shot Tech's not easy you have to know your stuff I show up into a room and I talk the talk and I think people look at me sometimes they're like wow how do you even know that and it's like because it's my job right but it's just it's sometimes it's that perception and you just kind of have to you know work through it and know your stuff and that's some of the respect you get too in the business for sure.

Mary Killelea: So you touched on College there just for a sec, so cost of higher education has grown so much over the years, and when you're looking at hiring someone out of college or someone for a mid-level role, what kind of things matter to you, specific schools matter like where they study, does it matter if they have a master's degree.

Deena Ghazarian: No, not at all. I think there's a couple things you learn in school I'm a big believer in this because I feel like this is what happened to me I tease all the time I went through high school and I was the best regurgitation type of person for statistics and facts you could be and then I got to college and I actually had to learn how to think and the minute I got to learn how to think I think it changed my perspective on everything that I did that made me successful. Now whether or not that is done at a higher you know higher ranked college or university. I don't know if it's where if you go to school and you engage what Higher Learning is supposed to bring for you to the table you will actually have that thought process of learning how to think to kind of start off a career. So I am a big believer of that also think interestingly enough and at CTA we're doing a much major very well what's the word I'm looking for there's a major push around there are so many jobs out there right now that we can't even fulfill that are really based on what I would call simple execution type of roles let me give a good example we have integrators where there are thousands of jobs out there I have a gentleman who just became the president of the company he is looking to put together a huge integrator base where they will literally can go into your home help you set up any type of you know electronic situation that you need and do it in a way where it's very easy to get that person you know to figure out who's the good match come to your home when you need him Etc. He can't even fill all the jobs because nobody's out there teaching that vocational type of skill to somebody and by the way we've not done a good job in I think America saying that that's okay that's an okay job I think we have gone such the opposite end of go to university go to college get a degree right that everybody's like okay I've done that and now you really look at what's going on and these and all these kids who've spent money that they may not ever get out of debt.

Mary Killelea: I know.

Deena Ghazarian: Like great I'm here I follow directions now look where I am now what do I do.

Mary Killelea: Totally agree and I have one daughter in college and then one sophomore in high school so I mean this is very on my mind like what is the value and what school classes should they be taking to really prepare themselves you know and not every kid is meant for you know higher ed maybe it's a trade school. So yeah I think we really need to take a look but I mean again that's kind of a whole different conversation but it's important I think a message that I would like to have people take away from this, is it comes down to not just the you having a masters like if you don't have a masters don't think it eliminates you from opportunities if you didn't graduate from a particular College don't think that inhibits you from going after a career path because it's more about I think guts and determination and you know life skills and solution skills that help drive someone's success.

Deena Ghazarian: 100%. I don't have a master's yeah right like I went to school I got my you know Bachelor of Arts and boom started working and though I'm very grateful the school I went to and I say it all the time they truly taught me how to think which I think has changed completely my perspective I could have gotten that I believe I could have gotten that anywhere that I decided to go and get a higher education. But that also doesn't mean there you know just because I got a higher education doesn't mean today like I would even have the ability to get a job out of school no matter what I learned. Where again if you look at it from a vocation standpoint right now there's not enough people going through that vocational training to fulfill all the jobs that are needed which is insane to me right now like so how do you restructure to be able to set that up for somebody so they can work right away they can get those that onhand experience maybe they even then go back to school after that like I say it all the time I wish someone had taught me or it would have been acceptable to work before going to school I think I would have even gotten more out of it because I would have been able to say I've had this personal experience you're teaching me this concept but I've lived this right and I think once you do that the way that you attach and learn is just it's 10 times greater than if you're just reading it out of a textbook.

Mary Killelea: Definitely, agree and I love that this comment that you made about your dad actually encourages you to slow down and get some life work experience. I think that is a tremendous gift that he gave you.

Deena Ghazarian: Yes, I would agree with you.

Mary Killelea: Okay so you've touched on the mentors that you've had in your life so for some of our listeners that are just wanting and hungry for mentors but not sure of how to go about getting them what advice would you give someone?

Deena Ghazarian: So if we want to go back to that networking situation we were talking about earlier and why that's so critical, I would say half of the people that I've ever been Mentor mentee with have come from those networking situations, 100%. The other half has probably been for people that I've worked for that though they may have been my boss or my boss's boss they still our relationship was very Mentor mentee related than it was you know you work for me because again I was constantly asking questions I was constantly how would you do this how did you come across this situation like just wanted to be that sponge to observe or absorb everything that they had lived through. And I think every time I put myself in that situation and mind space for the focus on teaching me more, teaching me more their relationship with me changed too. Where they were much more open and much more willing to kind of have that mentor conversation versus you working for me doing your job.

Mary Killelea: Totally makes sense. I mean I think some people actually are flattered that okay here's someone that really cares about growing and learning and is inquisitive and it makes them stop and appreciate the knowledge you know that the best way to learn is be a teacher. And so I'm sure it adds value to them as well.
Deena Ghazarian: I completely agree. I want to help somebody the more questions I get asked the more I want to help you.

Mary Killelea: Right.

Deena Ghazarian: It's amazing how that works.

Mary Killelea: So when it comes to working, what is the best piece of advice you've ever received? If you can.

Deena Ghazarian: Yeah, no. There's a couple I would say the one that I think sits with me the most that I learned relatively quickly in my career is higher people smarter better you know you need to surround yourself with people who are outstanding and are not necessarily you or your skill set right so the more you do that the more successful you be, I can say one of the coolest things books and or things that we kind of learned and did over the years is there's this book it's a little old school now but it's called now discover your strengths and you know you take a little test and it shows you what your top five strengths are which is great but from there really the Crux of that whole philosophy is great now you know your five strengths and how to work with them and you can learn about other strengths and learn how to work with them but the best teams in the world take those strengths which is they're about 33 to 35 of them and you build a team where the strengths live in every individual. So you find like you know different people to cover those different strengths so when you have your team every one of those strengths that's best for business is covered by somebody and what they love to do and what they're passionate about you know the minute you hire a bunch of people like yourself is the minute that you're probably going to fail because you all will support each other based on that philosophy and won't think about things from the other side of the fence you won't put yourself in somebody else's shoes you won't think outside of the box because it's not built necessarily into your you know strength yeah that's that's probably one of the biggest that I've ever gotten I would say the other one too, is the whole concept of servant leadership versus being a leader I was kind of put into a leadership role very very quickly when I went to go work in fashion where I was a 21y old managing like the first job I ever had was in China and Crystal and so everybody who was on the sales floor was all over 50 and I was 21 and so who's this 21y old punk kid gonna tell me what to do and so it very much taught me how to do more of this well I'm not going to tell you what to do let's figure it out together how can I help you overcome what it is you already know how to do well how can I get those roadblocks out of the way and that whole kind of servant leadership mentality and I still keep that today I learn more when I do that too I think I get more about what's going on with the business so I can make the right decisions for the business just because the people again if you hire and you hire smart ones around you they know what to do you're just there to help them remove roadblocks and go as fast as possible.

Mary Killelea: That's great. What have been some of the biggest challenges that you've faced in your career?

Deena Ghazarian: I would say the hardest one for me is that I had always wanted a family it was never an option not to have a family and as my career was continuing to grow and I was continuing to you know move higher up I guess on the ladder we very much struggled to have kids to the point that I actually had to remove myself from Monster for about a year and a half and not travel like a crazy person stay local and really focus on you know starting a family and what was scary to me was oh my God like what's gonna happen to my career if I do that is it just GNA stop is it g to go am i g to fall off the radar where I'm not going to be important like what I've been building for so long and you know you build in your mind like the worst case scenario and ironically what I did ended up being one of not only did we start a family which was the number one goal but more importantly I put myself in a different situation where I learned from others where I met other people that again was probably one of the best decisions I made for my career. But it was out of you know I would have never bet money on the fact that would have been a good thing I was deathly afraid that it was going to ruin everything and so sometimes you just have to kind of go do it and you will always figure it out and I think unfortunately humans are very good good at psyching themselves out on why it's a horrible thing to do you know to to and so I think out of everything in my career and I would say most things been very fortunate in that good bad or indifferent. My career has been pretty steady to me that was the scariest thing and biggest challenge we've ever faced I mean it was literally my husband's like if you can't change what your focus is it's either me or your job type of thing right like I we talked about it we want to have a family if you're that afraid that it's going to ruin your career then you're not in the right space type of thing to have children and to be in our relationship and it was tough. I really had to look and be like okay what is it that I really want.

Mary Killelea: That is a real fear that many women face and I think today we're doing a better job of talking about it or even seeing and recognizing other women like yourself who had that fear and still has gone on to not only raise a beautiful family but come back and have a very successful career so you're modeling what in the past maybe didn't exist. So yeah it's wonderful to share these stories to give other people you know examples as well as inspiration as well as you know the permission to have those fears.

Deena Ghazarian: Yes I would agree but I also think too that if you again surround yourself with the right people and surround yourself in the right environment you will always longterm be okay yeah but sometimes when you're in it it's very very hard to see that.

Mary Killelea: So, what are some essential qualities that you look for when you're hiring someone? So I know they have specific qualifications but if you had core qualities in a person what would those be?

Deena Ghazarian: You can always teach somebody to do a certain job. It's the personality. It is kind of like the spirit, the passion, the excitement when you're talking to somebody you can tell whether they are a positive person or not, right? You know I so to me it's like you interview somebody do they seem like they are good people on top of the good people are they positive is the glass kind of you know always half full in the sense that sure there's challenges sometime but you can always solve your problem you can always focus on getting to the next level if you if you can find somebody with the right attitude again you can teach anybody how to do it job, type of thing.

Mary Killelea: Yep totally agree.

Deena Ghazarian: So yeah.

Mary Killelea: So, tech is moving so fast and pre prevalent in every industry really that I mean I can't think of any one industry really it doesn't touch and you know with AI coming on the board what tech skills are essential for someone to have? I mean again I know there's some you know specifics related to the roles but overall related to Tech what's someone's attitude what's someone's skills?

Deena Ghazarian: Well so here's what's so funny right you would have thought Tech coding if I want to be you know in this business I need to be an engineer trained person who knows how to code right and that's been I think a very strong statement for the last 1015 years I literally met with somebody last week that there's Now new technology where you don't even need to know how to code and you can still build a software platform an example that's how fast it's changing so again you're like well to be in Tech what is it you know what is it that you need what does that look like I think it's really more about again how are you solving somebody's problem what is it that the you know consumer needs or what is it that a different business needs in order to be able to move themselves forward and be in a good situation and then leveraging Tech to help with that. So as a good example we'll go back to CES and use that CES has become the largest platform right now for brands that you would never guess, right? So Delta was the keynote at CES in that keynote the CEO talked about what they are doing with technology in order to make the consumer's experience better and why is it that you want to be loyal to Delta over every other brand and the techn again they will go find the Technology based on what it is the consumer needs so one of the cool things they showed us is they are looking at a panel platform where when I look at the screen it's just talking to me but when you're looking at the same screen it's just talking to you yet we're staring at the same screen and it knows who you are so it's a personalized experience and it's you know so again there's a ton of tech that goes behind that to make that happen actually it's almost like it's magic to be honest with you when someone tells you about that you're like okay that's magic there's no how does that happen but again you can always go find the tech Delta is not necessarily a tech company but they understand the importance of technology in order to be able to move the experience forward that to me is what's critical in this whole scenario so that's kind of number one number two if there is something about the tech industry that interests you or you think would help move you in the right direction such as AI as an example you do all of the research and homework possible to make yourself I wouldn't necessarily say an expert but to make yourself Savvy in that part of the business so you can talk to it you can Network you can meet other people to bring the right you know qualities together in order for you to be able to move your business forward if that's what you believe yet you need as part of your model right so again I think it's changing so fast like you again with this no coding thing made me laugh I was trying to desperately make my daughter to like science and math which I think she's okay at which is great but more importantly if she can go out of school and create something without coding at all that's going to give herself the ability to create an app like why would you put them through that process if that's antiquated right right and it's just it's amazing how fast it's moving that you kind of have to be in the middle of it to know.

Mary Killelea: Yeah, these are fascinating times. I think it's thrilling and I think it's just going to be amazing to see what our children's lives look like agreed what drives you to be successful what is your why?

Deena Ghazarian: I would say my number one it's changed over the years but I would say right now my why is provide not only providing for my family but being that Force for my daughters to be able to have a better opportunity than I even did and just by being a female and a very male dominated industry and changing the narrative on that so if that is where they wanted to go it's just that much easier for them that is the number one thing for me that's important I would say the second thing is I very much have come to love you know I have this business and this business takes care of some families and these other families and giving them that opportunity and being in a in a position to do that oh God it's so rewarding. I never thought it would be as rewarding as it is. It is really cool to be able to create something that someone can be a part of and it not only gives them passion for their career but it allows them to be successful for their families.

Mary Killelea: That's great. And that really answers my next question, like what do you enjoy most about your job? It sounds like you provide your businesses the opportunity for growth and fulfillment.

Deena Ghazarian: Agreed, also the fact that I am so much a believer in mentoring and giving back that way to the fact that if I can take somebody and make them unbelievably successful too then 100% I've done my job and it just makes me so happy to watch people grow.

Mary Killelea: Ah, I knew you would be perfect for the show. This is awesome. Alright, couple more questions. If you could tell your 20yr old self one thing, what would it be?

Deena Ghazarian: Breathe, take and what I mean by Breathe, it's really that advice my dad gave me. That at the time I kind of like whatever okay I'll do it to I wish I had breathed a little bit more I thought I had breathed more I wouldn't have been as freaked out about creating the family where now it's you kind of look back and you're like oh my God I can't even believe that was like such a drama time for me in my career, right? Sometimes breathing takes time for yourself but more importantly the self-reflection and it is okay to pause it is okay to Think Through what it is you're going to do if you are motivated and your passion is correct you will always find your true north 100%.

Mary Killelea: Totally agree, where do you see yourself in five years?

Deena Ghazarian: Oh, continuing to grow my businesses I very much have a passion for working and so I definitely see myself continuing to work I probably see myself doing even more of a you know focuses on boards advisory boards you regular board leadership in order to move other companies forward as well and right about five years as well when my eldest will graduate from high school and hoping that we've done a good job as parents and setting her on her you know really the start of that huge Journey Beyond you know living with your parents and living at home. So hopefully I can still be her cheerleader right by her side and you know point her in the right direction but let her go and grow.

Mary Killelea: That's awesome. Last question, do you have any good business or career books or podcasts that you love that you might recommend?

Deena Ghazarian: So, I do. Here, I'm gonna like scroll over here and give you some of my favorite books that I have saved so I mentioned now discover your strengths or strengths finder is kind of I think the new version of it absolutely love that whole philosophy and what's what's there behind it what it stands for so that's kind of number one number two there was a couple books that I read about you know kind of having a seat at the table and I there's quite a few different books about women and having that seat at the table and what that what that means and how to how to take it not take advantage of it but more importantly how to leverage it for the betterment of everybody there's a couple different books out there and I think one of them might have even been seat at the table a female seat at the table is what I think it was called I will say from a mentoring standpoint lean in and reading that book originally was also pretty meaningful for me I was part of a women in consumer Technology Group and the leanin book actually ended up creating a major mentoring program that we built behind it for about 50 women within the organization that once a month got to be part of a mentoring program because of that book yeah that was a wonderful book I read that it was and then on the podcast side you know how I built this is absolutely one of my favorites it's just such good storytelling I absolutely love it it's good to hear other entrepreneurs who literally you know slugged it out and some of the things they learned and what's important to them and you know maybe even incorporating some of that education into your own kind of business it's probably my favorite and then I have to say it too as part of that balance and breathing one of my other favorite podcasts selfishly is comments by celeb not because it has anything to do with my business at all but it is a good break in a good hour of laughter pop culture which really kind of sometimes comes back to your business because if you understand what's going in the market and what you know what is driving a lot of Pop Culture some of those tidbits you can actually bring back into your business for the betterment of your consumer so as much as it's my guilty pleasure every once in a while there's some great concept that they talk about that it's like okay minimalism is important right now I can see that from everything that's happening on the runway and what's going on in homes and think maybe I should be incorporating that into my business so you can learn from everywhere but it's definitely my guilty passion for sure well

Mary Killelea: Thank you. This has been so great having you on this show, I enjoyed it so much. Where can someone learn more about you?

Deena Ghazarian: That's a good question, I would say LinkedIn is probably your best point you know it's just Deena Ghazaria, that's probably number one, number two, if you go to oster.com www.oster.com there's a lot of great information not only on the brand through our press and news page but some different information I guess about me and some of the stuff we did to start up the business which I'm happy to have people learn about and you know if there if you have a passion for something and want to create a business, I am here to help. So awesome sharing that knowledge and helping someone along it is absolutely something I again as I mentioned earlier is very motivating to me.

Mary Killelea: Thank you so much.

Deena Ghazarian: Thank you, Mary. It was great to speak with you today.

Mary Killelea: Thanks for listening to the episode today, it was really fun chatting with my guest, if you liked our show please like it and share it with your friends, if you want to learn what we're up to please go check out our website at 2bbolder.com, that's the number 2 little b bolder.com.